An Alchemist's Path to Eternity

Fu Hongzhang thought for a moment before saying, ”The family head believes Blood Nightmare may have carried a portion of Grand Elder Blood Sea’s power within him. That power probably broke free during the battle and spiraled out of control. Otherwise, it’s hard to explain why Ascendant Li had to intervene personally.”

Luo Chen fell silent. Indeed, if an Ascendant had been required to contain it, then the power could only have belonged to the same level. Blood Hermit had been renowned across the Northern Sea for countless years, yet someone of his stature had died just like that. And Blood Nightmare, with whom Luo Chen still held an unsettled grudge and from whom he had only recovered a fraction of what he was owed... had he also perished in that same battle?

His thoughts returned to the enormous shadow he had glimpsed under the sea of blood while retreating from the archipelago. Was that the power of Grand Elder Blood Sea? Did only Blood Nightmare carry it, or were both of them entangled with it somehow?

No one could give him answers to these questions. The Heaven Origin Trade Alliance’s intelligence was limited to the fact that the once-glorious Coldlight Archipelago had now become a wasteland. Its spirit veins were gone, and even the omnipresent natural spirit energy seemed to avoid the region entirely.

Fu Hongzhang did not dare disturb Luo Chen’s thoughts, and silence settled over the living room. It was only broken when Heavenjade arrived. ”Master, we’ve finished counting everything. Most of it consists of the items you specifically requested. Based on Senior Fu’s prices, the total comes to thirty million low-grade spirit stones.”

Thirty million? Luo Chen raised his head and looked at Fu Hongzhang.

Fu Hongzhang smiled. ”This is only the first batch. You asked for quite a large amount, and this was all we could gather on such short notice. But rest assured, the alliance has operated in the Northern Sea for many years, and our connections stretch across all Five Territories. It shouldn’t take long to collect the rest.”

Luo Chen nodded. ”Thank you. I appreciate the effort.”

Having a major force handle the collection of resources for him truly made everything much easier. The materials he required for the Grand Origin Pills and Great Soul Pills included more than a hundred types, and all in massive quantities. Gathering them himself would have taken at least a century, and he had long since grown tired of interrupting his cultivation to travel from place to place in search of materials.

Since he now had access to the Heaven Origin Trade Alliance’s network, he might as well make full use of it. He could have them collect the ingredients for Liquid Condensation Pills and the improved Nascent Soul Pills as well. After all, once his agreement with Fu Chaosheng ended, this preferential treatment would disappear with it. The trade alliance was far too powerful to extend the same courtesy to an ordinary Sage.

Heavenjade spoke up from nearby. ”By the way, Master, there was something else among the items. It wasn’t on your list.”

She held a bone board and two small jars, one black and one white.

Luo Chen turned to Fu Hongzhang. ”What is this?”

Fu Hongzhang immediately perked up and explained, ”It’s a Go set. The board and jars were carved from the leg bone of a Demon King, while the black and white stones were made from second-tier luminous shells found only in the Northern Sea. It may not compare to the famous Go sets produced by the Dao Sect, but it is still quite valuable and has a character unique to the Northern Sea. This is a gift from the family head, so you don’t owe us anything for it.”

”In that case, please thank him on my behalf.”

After Fu Hongzhang departed, Luo Chen removed one stone from each jar and rolled them between his fingers. They were smooth and cool, with a faint jade-like polish. The game of Go was especially popular in the Central Continent, and almost every disciple of the Dao Sect knew how to play at least a little. Perhaps Fu Chaosheng had sent this set so Luo Chen could become familiar with the local customs before he eventually made his way there.

As Luo Chen studied the intersecting lines on the board, a flicker of interest stirred within him. Before his transmigration, AI had advanced considerably. He had never paid enough attention to know how widely it was used, but even someone uninvolved like him had heard of the famous matches between AI and the world’s greatest Go players. For a long time, Go had been hailed as the intellectual game that best represented the highest level of human intelligence. It was not merely for entertainment but an expression of wisdom and strategy. However, that belief had been shaken when the greatest human players suffered repeated defeats. In the end, the scientific community declared that AI had conquered the game.

Cultivators, however, had intellect on a level that ordinary mortals could never approach. Their powerful divine souls and divine consciousness allowed them to perform chains of calculations in fractions of seconds, something completely impossible for mortals. Under such circumstances, what would contests of Go between high-tier cultivators look like? Wouldn’t they amount to little more than two human-shaped computers competing against each other?

Amused by the thought, he put the black and white stones back into their jars. Go might provide an interesting diversion, but he had no intention of devoting himself to it, much less becoming some kind of Go expert. With so many medicinal materials delivered directly to him, his time would be better spent refining pills. Once he refined Grand Origin Pills, he could resume cultivating and test how much faster his cultivation in the Nascent Soul Realm would be with the aid of pills. Moreover, he also needed to refine Great Soul Pills. The subsidiary soul he had separated remained only as powerful as a late-stage Adept’s, and he wanted to raise it to the Sage level as soon as possible.

Rather than storing the Go set away, Luo Chen left it on the table in the living room. He could dabble in it whenever he had a little spare time and treat it as a casual form of entertainment.

As he approached the alchemy room, however, he could not help glancing once more at the board on the table. He vaguely recalled that the poem inscribed at the entrance to the Heaven of Bright Illumination had also alluded to Go.

Did the Monarch enjoy playing the game as well?

***

Before leaving the city, Luo Chen needed to wait for two people. The first was Fu Chaosheng, whose two-hundred-year contract as the Heaven Origin Trade Alliance’s director in the Northern Sea was drawing to a close. Already advanced in age, Fu Chaosheng had made arrangements to step down and return home. Once he settled the alliance’s remaining affairs, he would meet Luo Chen and travel to the Central Continent together.

The second was Black King. When they reached Giant Whale Harbor, he had slipped into the sea and swum toward the former site of the Myriad Immortal Society. Luo Chen had sent him to search for several old acquaintances whose whereabouts remained unknown. With the Hidden Dragon Mountain Range now occupied by demonic beasts, going there personally would have created unnecessary complications. Black King was far better suited to moving through the region unnoticed.

Thus, this waiting period gave him time to reorganize his cultivation. Ever since becoming a Sage, he had been forced to rethink almost every aspect of his future path, and the number of unresolved matters had initially left him unsure where to even start. However, while travelling to Divine Origin City, he had sorted them bit by bit according to their importance and urgency.

Creating a core cultivation technique remained his top priority, but it was not something he could or needed to resolve immediately. Since he had reached Perfected Mastery of the Heavenly Phoenix Nirvana Scripture, it was still effective for the time being. He would eventually create his own technique, but that could not be accomplished overnight, and the same was true for his physique cultivation.

Therefore, alchemy took priority for the time being. He had already studied the Grand Origin Pill and Great Soul Pill formulas for some time and believed he knew them thoroughly. Furthermore, he had also refined the fifth-tier Law Scrutiny Pill within the Alchemy Realm. Although that experience did not formally make him a fifth-tier alchemist, fourth-tier pills were unlikely to pose much difficulty.